Wasted Education
by Barcavolio
Summary: Hero. Sidekick. There was a world of difference between those two words, two stupid silly labels that branded you for the rest of your life.


I discovered I liked writing Sky High fanfics. Here be another.

Disclaimer: Don't own Sky High. Trust me, there would be a lot more anarchy and grape juice if I did.

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Layla stood there disbelieving. Her mother had told her Sky High had an unusual way of doing things, but this was horribly, stupidly real. Sorting people into heroes and sidekicks wasn't the way to teach. It only created more tension and a more defined pecking order in a system that was already a traumatic experience: high school.

Layla didn't see how you could sort people into heroes and sidekicks anyway. Boomer was clearly a man of little imagination, and only saw the surface use each freshman's power could have. He was simply picking the ones with the most impressive-looking powers, and dismissing anyone who had a power which didn't have a hero tone that was immediately apparent. How stupid.

_Best of cruel intentions. Finding what they fail to mention._

She saw Zack step confidently up on stage.

"Try not to drop your clipboard," he said brightly, clapping his hands together and summoning his power. Zack was a guy who thought extremely well of himself, always believing that he was great. And Zack _was_ great, just not in a way Boomer would understand.

Boomer looked disgusted and unimpressed when nothing happened. "Sidekick," he said casually. Zack opened his mouth to argue, but was silenced with Boomer's second, louder "Sidekick!"

And it didn't make sense, Layla decided. Boomer's power was the kind that would have landed him in sidekick class when _he_ was at Sky High.

_No truth, all pretension. Raise your hand to get attention._

Will's 'audition', as it was, was a complete disaster. He'd been dreading it anyway, he'd told her, and although Boomer refused to believe him when Will admitted to not knowing what his power was, crushed him under a car, sent him hurtling across the room, and finally smashed every breakable surface in the school with his "SIDEKICK!", he still took his place. Sulky, but graceful.

It wasn't fair on any of the freshmen who had been labelled sidekicks. They'd tried just as hard, and now they were going to spend the next four years the scapegoats, demoted. All because Boomer didn't like their power.

_You give and we take it. You build it, we break it._

Layla ranted about this at home that day.

"…so if he's not impressed with your power, you're sent down to sidekick class. His word's law. It's ridiculous, and fascist," she finished.

Her mother shrugged. "Just the way it goes. I'm surprised you're stuck in sidekick class, though. You have a good power, Layla."

Layla sighed. "I refused to show Boomer my power. Down to sidekick I went. And it's all fake. Those hero kids, half of them won't end up saving the world. It's not what your power is, you said it was how you used it. If they're going to split us up, they should have done it through a personality test."

"Mm. Sometimes I wonder whether I should have agreed with Principal Powers to send you there."

Layla raised her eyebrows. "You sealed my fate when you signed the paper, huh?"

_You sign and we erase it. You feel it, we fake it._

***

Praise. Everyone wanted it. Everyone at Sky High wanted to be a superhero, everyone wanted to be told they had the makings of a hero. They joked and mucked about like normal teens, but the want for praise was much stronger.

At Will and Layla's primary school, the teacher had given them red star stickers when they did something good. Layla had loved those stickers, and would do anything to get one. Now in their unusual high school, being told they could make a great superhero one day was their red star.

_It's my red star. I steal it. It's my red star, I can't let go._

Mr Boy, their teacher, tried to encourage the gloomy, sulky sidekicks that sidekicks were just as important as the heroes they supported, but no one in the class bought it for a second. They wanted to be in the hero class, saving the world. Layla thought the whole hero—sidekick idea was a waste of time, but it was the only system they knew.

_It's my red star. Conceal it. It's my red star, all I know._

***

Ten years later, Layla was pleased to discover she was right about the hero kids – a lot of them had turned out to be the Commanders of this generation, but lots of them preferred to use their powers in more subtle ways. Ex-sidekick, her darling Will, had proved himself to be one of the best, and some people said he was even out-ranking the Commander in notoriety.

What Layla was not so pleased about, as part of the outcome of their lives, was how wrong Sky High had been. Not all the kids in hero class ended up saving the world, and not all the kids in sidekick class were eternally overshadowed. She'd heard Zack and Magenta made a brilliant pair of co-working superheroes, even if their methods were a little… unorthodox. But who would have guessed it during their school days?

_Wasted education. Celebrating imitation._

The school system had been turned upside down. If Layla had told anyone that the great Will Stronghold had initially been stuck in sidekick class, everyone would have thought she was insane. How could someone so clearly powerful and destined for greatness _ever_ end up in sidekick class?

It didn't speak well for Sky High's credibility.

_Misplaced admiration, speaking for a generation._

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I've thought of something else I don't own: the song I used, which is "Red Stars" by The Birthday Massacre. I cut out the second chorus coz I'm lazy like that.

Did you notice you can insert line breaks when editing it in the saved doc in Document Manager? I never knew about that before, so this is special coz it's the first of my stories to have proper line breaks.

Review? If you don't I'll be sad =(


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